


The Man Next Door

by nolongervoid



Category: BoBoiBoy (Cartoon)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, COVID-19, Crack, M/M, Neighbors AU, Sorry :P, started this a few months ago on a spree then never ended up finishing oop, they r social distancing as they should b
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27285190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nolongervoid/pseuds/nolongervoid
Summary: the quarantine fic
Relationships: Kaizo/Ramenman (BoBoiBoy)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	The Man Next Door

Day 1 of quarantine, Kaizo spends the entire day in bed. Every so often he bangs on the wall behind him to remind his video-game obsessed brother to keep his Youtuber voice down. Between sleeping and Youtube and scrolling through social media, he’s barely affected by the new protocols. By 1am the next morning, all that remains of his junk food stash is a can of soda and half a bag of chips. Kaizo finally gets up to use the bathroom and drink a glass of actual water from the kitchen.

In short, his routine follows the usual.

-

Day 1 of quarantine, Ramen replaces his morning run with a Youtube workout. He posts snippets on his Instagram story and decides to try a recipe he’s never cooked before. Half an hour later, the stove is smoking and he’s forced to open all doors and windows until the apartment is breathable again. He stands on his balcony in a light sweater, admiring the view of zero human activity. By 7pm he’s counted exactly 11 cars leaving and returning to the complex to pick up essentials.

He goes to bed that night hopeful.

-

Day 2 of quarantine, Kaizo’s bed is suffocatingly stuffy by noon. He throws aside the blankets and sits at his desk for the rest of the day. Fang monopolizes the living room to binge the first season of some new Netflix series. He could very well have fallen asleep when Kaizo leaves his room to put two days worth of trash in its place at 11pm, because the clatter of dirty dishes in the sink startles him awake.

“How’s the new life treating you,” Kaizo calls over to him from the fridge.

He gets a sigh and a groan in response. “I wanna go out with my friends.”

Kaizo, unable to relate to the familiarity of friendship, shrugs and locks himself in his room again.

-

Day 2 of quarantine, Ramen forces down the leftovers of whatever the heck he failed to cook yesterday, then whips up a foolproof brunch that’ll energize him for the next little while. He posts a poll on his story to decide if he should start a Youtube channel to pass the time, then does another round of exercise, followed by a short session of podcast-guided yoga. He video-calls his family to ask how they’re doing, but it only lasts a while before they’re needed- at the health clinic or the grocery checkout aisle or the McDonald’s cash register. All the McDonald’s in Ramen’s town have been closed since three days ago.

He cooks his signature dish for supper this time, and takes the almost-overflowing bowl out to the balcony to enjoy. It’s warmer than yesterday, and combined with the heat of the ramen, he ends up taking off his sweatshirt and sitting at the little table in a t-shirt and shorts. The neighbour beside pokes their head out their own balcony door.

“Do you smell that?”

Ramen holds up his bowl to show them the source of the aroma, and their eyes widen.

“Man I would kill for some of that right now. Too bad everywhere’s closed..”

Ramen shrugs. “Soon as social distancing dies you should come over and I’ll make some.”

The no-longer-stranger nods eagerly, then disappears from view back into their own apartment.

“Did someone say house party after the quarantine is over?”

Ramen has to stand up and peek over the railing to see who’s talking. “My place,” he calls down. “They don’t call me Ramen for nothing.”

They nod and grin so Ramen smiles back before sitting down again.

Maybe he won’t die of boredom and solitude after all.

-

Day 3 of quarantine, Kaizo agrees to play video games against Fang, if only to get his brother to finally stop pestering him. Fang shouts instructions through the wall to join his private server, and it takes a little while for Kaizo to figure out the game before he’s beaten Fang once. Twice. Thrice.

Two hours later, Fang’s glaring at him through the doorway. Kaizo takes off his headphones and shrugs, a very slightly arrogant smile on his face. Fang flips him the bird and stalks back to his room to play video games with his own friends, and Kaizo is surprised to find himself rather bored. All the posts on social media are about quarantine and reading about people being suffocated in idleness starts to make him feel abit restless too. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration comes to him, and, opening a new tab, types in a new search.

Google gives him almost 300 million results for “carrot soup” in less than ten seconds.

-

Day 3 of quarantine, Ramen makes friends with almost all his neighbors. A set of wireless speakers now rest on the table outside and blast some upbeat tunes to match the sunny weather. He doesn’t bother wearing a sweatshirt today, just chilling on the balcony in a sleeveless jersey that supports the local basketball team (not that they’ll be playing this season). He finds a tennis ball in some cupboard and brings it outside, putting on a pair of nitrile gloves. He tosses the ball to the balcony adjacent, initiating a game of catch, and few others grab gloves and join in. It doesn’t take long before they’ve all warmed up to each other, having fun conversing and playing ball.

The apartment below the one beside his, however, remains silent.

-

Day 4 of quarantine, Fang knocks on the wall and tells Kaizo to open his window before his room becomes stuffy to the point of actual suffocation. Kaizo rolls his eyes and tells him he isn’t that smelly and he actually took a shower this morning. He can feel cool air breezing in through his open bedroom door from the living room windows, and shivers slightly, throwing a blanket over himself.

“And you call me an edgelord,” Fang remarks on his way to the bathroom.

Kaizo rolls his eyes and goes back to watching a vine compilation. He’s on the third-last video of a playlist when he senses movement in the corner of his peripheral vision. He turns to see what could possibly moving in his brooding chamber of motionlessness and death, and promptly has a heart attack.

-

Day 4 of quarantine, Ramen becomes very curious about apartment 203. He knows it’s not empty because the second floor was fully occupied the last time he checked the building phone number listing. Maybe they’re out of town, then?

Still, curiosity gets the better of him and so, with the wary permission of the inhabitants of apartment 303, he finds himself dangling over the mysterious tenant’s balcony, supported by both legs and one stable hand on the structure above him. He takes a chance and leans forward till he can see through the window and note that the apartment is in fact not empty. There is a human inside.

Said human is presently staring at him with an expression of shock and terror. Ramen drops his hand that’s uselessly holding onto the bottom of a railing and waves. The person is motionless and Ramen wonders for a moment if he was mistaken after all and they’re just a very surprised mannequin but then the figure jerks alive and walks right up to the window.

“GREETINGS NEIGHBOUR,” Ramen shouts through the glass.

The other guy narrows his eyes in suspicion, and Ramen is mildly aware of how insane he must seem right now.

“I’M IN 302,” Ramen explains. “I DON’T SEE YOU MUCH. YOU SHOULD COME OUT MORE. OPEN THE WINDOW SO I LOOK LESS LIKE A MADMAN.”

Mr. 203 raises an eyebrow but doesn’t answer. Instead, he walks over to his bed, picks up his phone, and comes back to the window. He taps on the screen a few times and holds the screen upside down to the window so Ramen can read.

_Did no one tell you about this hip new thing called SOCIAL DISTANCING? Or did they not give you an explanation when they kicked you out of clown college._

Ramen simply smiles and shrugs. Which is an impulse of his, sure, but his impulse clearly did not take into account that he’s currently hanging from a balcony. So naturally, the laws of gravity kick in and reduce him to pile on limbs on the dusty cement.

The tenant appears from the apartment door and steps outside, carefully keeping himself to the opposite side of the balcony, as far from the blond as possible. Ramen understands social distancing but would it have killed him to put on a surgical mask and gloves and so help him?

“You good?” is all the compassion he offers.

“Just fine,” Ramen assures him, not feeling fine at all. He isn’t one to get mortified quickly, but falling after dangling upside down from a balcony you jumped onto from 3 storeys over the ground isn’t exactly the most dignified sight. He manages to help himself up, panting from effort, and looks up to see-

_Woah._

“Are you sure you’re okay?” the guy repeats.

Ramen laughs quietly, then locks eyes. “Did you see that? I think I just fell for you.”

There’s a collective _“OOOH”_ from the surrounding apartments. Some sort of crowd had formed between Ramen’s jump and his fall, and now they’re here for a show. The other dude doesn’t seem as interested, though, he just stares at him with an expression of unamusement. Someone pokes their head outside the door- another, younger resident. He flashes a smirk at his housemate, and Ramen looks at him for a moment to note the resemblance. Brothers, probably.

“Well if this isn’t the most progress you’ve ever made in your nonexistent love life,” he tells the older one, grinning. “Congratulations, incel.”

“I am not an incel, I’m just very happily single, _thank you very much,_ ” the other hisses back.

“Aw c’mon, don’t tell me you just look at me and don’t feel a sudden urge to _mingle_ ,” Ramen teases.

The older brother throws him a contemptuous glance. “Who are you, anyway, and what were you _doing_ dangling over my balcony?”

“Call me Ramen,” the blond tells him. “Just wanted to share some neighborly camaraderie with my mysterious fellow apartment building dwellers.”

The other hesitates a moment. “Kaizo,” he introduces himself, “and this little imp is Fang.”

Fang waves. “Hello Kaizo’s boyfriend.”

The comment earns him a smack from his older brother- a light one because he ducks out of the way just in time. Ramen chuckles.

“Ignore him,” Kaizo says, then casts a glance at the neighboring balconies. “How are you planning to get back to your own apartment.”

Ramen pauses, truthfully not having through that far. Kaizo raises an eyebrow.

“I mean, you could always let me in,” Ramen offers meekly.

Kaizo does not laugh. “If you’re feeling better you may as well monkey back to your own balcony the same way you got here.”

Ramen looks around for a moment at the crowd of spectators. Ah well, he may as well put all those workouts to good use.

He rubs his hands together before stepping onto the railing in one stride. He stretches his arms up to the bottom of the railing of the balcony above and lifts himself up, then flips himself onto the cement as the owner of the balcony steps back cautiously. Not wasting a second to break his momentum, he launches himself over the gap and lands on his own balcony with a dramatic backflip.

The audience breaks into applause and cheers while Kaizo merely watches him with a careful smile and that signature raised eyebrow. Ramen smooths out his shirt and winks before heading back inside to grab some bandaids and antibacterial ointment. Kaizo ignores his brother’s teasing and returns to his own bedroom.

-

Day 5 of quarantine, Ramen gets Kaizo’s attention by taking advantage of the fact that it is now too warm outside for Kaizo to keep his bedroom window closed. The introvert finally comes outside to complain about the ridiculously loud music issuing from Ramen’s balcony, and the blond seizes his chance.

“Did you hack into my heart? Because now I’m stuck with a virus called ‘hopelessly in love’,” Ramen calls over.

“Did you seriously search what my name means just to make that pick-up line?” Kaizo asks in disbelief.

“Are you the microwave to my cereal? Cause you make me all warm and mushy inside,” Ramen tries another one.

Kaizo stares at him. “Are you telling me that you _microwave_ your _cereal_?!”

Ramen pauses. “Of course,” he shrugs. “Doesn’t everyone?”

He looks around for support only to find his neighbors shaking their heads at him in disappointment. Ramen very slightly deflates.

Kaizo seems to take pity on him. “Well, uh, what goes in first: the cereal or the milk?”

“Milk,” Ramen tells him proudly, “but sometimes I use water instead.”

Kaizo looks more and more uncomfortable and desperate by the moment. 

“C-Coca cola or Pepsi?”

“Pepsi, duh.”

“Mr Noodles or Maggi?”

“Maggi, what kind of question is that?”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Kaizo sighs in relief.

Fang pops his head out the balcony door. “If you said Mr Noodles you’d have zero chance left with him for sure,” he informs the blond. “Wise choice.”

Ramen glances at Kaizo, who still appears to be having some sort of an existential crisis.

“Anything else you wanna know about me before we make it official?” Ramen asks.

Kaizo’s existential crisis intensifies.

“I’m half-Italian and half-New Yorker,” Ramen offers. “I can do the accent and everything.”

“Wha, can you say something in a New Yorker accent?” Fang appears again, holding his phone out. “Boboiboy wants to know if you’re legit.”

“B-Boboiboy?” Ramen splutters. “What kind of name is that? Are his parents sadists or something?”

“Says the one named Ramen,” Fang points out.

“Oi, my name is special. Wanna know how I got it?”

“In a New Yorker accent, sure.”

“Alright,” Ramen cleared his throat. “When I was in college all I ate was ramen and everyone called me Ramen because I could eat so much ramen without getting sick of it,” he said in a perfect New Yorker accent.

**Author's Note:**

> i swear someday i will not abandon a wip but today is not that day :p


End file.
